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"Of course we can," Alena smiled warmly at Lin, her green eyes sparkling brightly. "So that makes the tannery and the sweet shop ... is there anything else that you would all like to see?"

"Besides everything?" Rhea asked mischievously.

Even Aurin chuckled at that.

"What about you, Kelirahc?" Leyenda smiled at him. "Is there anything in particular that you want to see? Lin wants to see the tannery, Kaito wants to see the sweet shop ..."

Kelirahc averted his eyes slightly, and though his black skin showed no colour, it was clear that he was flustered. "I ... um ..."

"Leyenda," Rhea murmured softly, "he's never seen a shop before. He probably doesn't even know what they are."

Leyenda blushed as Kelirahc looked at her sheepishly and nodded. "Oh, right," she giggled, embarrassed. "I had forgotten ..."

Of course, among Kelirahc's people, there had been no concept of an economy. They had lived and died as a community, what belonged to one belonged to another. The only thing that they had to themselves was their clothes and their huts. Beyond that, they hadn't any concept of possessions. They had had no shops, no trading. If someone needed something, they used it; if they no longer needed it, they left it for someone else to use.

Kelirahc had to think about it long and hard, and even after several minutes he could only shrug.

"Perhaps some things," he admitted, "but much of it, Shiro explained to me. But I still do not know if there is anything specific that I would like to see ... I will just come along and see everything."

Leyenda smiled warmly. "Myself, I would very much like to see their jewelry shop," she said. "I just hope they take our currency, because I would be dreadfully disappointed not to be able to get anything from here."

Kelirahc blinked at her. "I don't understand ..."

Leyenda reached into her coin purse and pulled out a few coins, one gold and two silver. "Coins are currency, with which we can buy things from the shops," she explained. "I know in your society, there was nothing like this ... you used what you needed, and everything belonged to everyone. But here, and in my land, we must pay for what we would like to have, with a service if they accept it, or money if they do not."

Kelirahc picked the coins out of her hand as Alena led them down the street. "Money is currency?" he asked her dubiously, turning the coins over in his hand and inspecting them closely.

Kelirahc handed the coins back to Leyenda. "So ... you can give coins or another item," he said, trying to get it straight. He looked thoughtful as they approached the first shop. "I'm not entirely sure I understand ... how do you know what you have to give them, or how much money to give them?"

"The seller sets a price," Leyenda replied, hiding a smile, "and that's what you pay. Sometimes you can bargain with them and get it for a little less, but I don't like to do that."

Kelirahc ran his fingers through his hair. "Well," he smiled sheepishly, "I guess we'll look at a few different places and maybe I'll get the hang of it, right?"

"That's true," Kelirahc admitted as Alena led them into the nearest shop.

It turned out that the shop closest to where they had entered the commercial district was the jewelry shop, a fact that pleased Leyenda greatly. She whisked Kelirahc off to show him everything.

The person running the shop, a young woman with a pixie-ish face, blinked as her shop was suddenly filled with strange-looking folk. She looked at Alena and Aurin, perplexed.

"Lady Alena," she said, giving a quick curtsy behind the counter. "It has been a long time since we have seen you here. Welcome back. And the others ..." She trailed off, looking around at everyone once more.

Alena smiled at the woman. "Sols and solas of the old world," she told her, keeping it simple. "Visiting us for a while."

One thing that Rhea noticed as she looked at the jewelry in the shop was that it was an entirely different style from what she had seen in the Southland. While Aranhil's work had been of just as good quality, she felt that the pieces here were ... somehow more beautiful still, more intricate. Or perhaps it had just been a long time since she had seen anything so pretty, and it just seemed better. But it was definitely a different style. With Aranhil, most of his work had been themed around animals, insects (such as butterflies and dragonflies), and flowers ... but the items here seemed to be avian, leaves, and complex designs that she didn't know how to describe.

"Hey, Celtic knots," Kaito commented, peering over her shoulder and identifying it for her.

She looked over at him. "Celtic knots?" she repeated.

Kaito nodded and pointed at an intricately designed ring. "If you follow an individual strand, it never seems to end," he explained, "and sometimes all of the strands are really a single strand winding in and over itself so many times that it looks like many."

He leaned closer, careful not to let his wings brush against anything. "Though I have to say, it's better quality than what we see at home. Prettier."

"I wonder what the meaning is behind the knot," Rhea mused, tapping the glass over the display with her index finger.

Kaito looked over at Lin. "Eternity, isn't it? Or something like that? Or is it infinity?" He grimaced slightly. "Shiro would know."

Rhea smiled. "I like that. Like a ring, right? Ada says that we give rings as symbols of our love when we marry, to show that it has no beginning, and no end, only continues on forever."

She clasped her hands behind her back and continued to look at the jewelry.

"It's tempting to get something," she smiled, "but we're going to be here for a long time, I'll have other opportunities to come back. And then I'll be able to take my time, too."

Rhea smiled at Lin. "In a way, I kind of hope that the mapping is done rather quickly," she murmured. "I promised Earendil I would go with him, and to be honest I don't want him to go without me, not with all the gnomes and such out there. But I also want to spend time here, in the city, and at the castle, so that I can learn more about them, and meet more of the people here."

Despite having grown up in a somewhat secluded place, she was, as some people would term it, a social butterfly, something that drove Whisper crazy at times.